A Tale of a Gentle Ninja
by arbiter650
Summary: Lost in a world, no, a reality that is quite literally alien to her, Konan must figure out how she got here, why, and whether or not to return home... if she even can. In the meantime, she needs to first figure out how to survive in this strange and infuriating world, and it may take more than Jiraya's teachings to do just that.
1. Arrival of the Gentle Ninja

**Alright, so I figure there are a few questions about what the hell I am doing making a new story that is a crossover of Naruto and Mass Effect. Like, what the hell right? How can those two possibly interact?**

**Well, then again you're also probably wondering why I am not continuing The Twilit Blade. Well, I guess what that amounts to is that I just don't have the patience to go through Twilight Princess, or even remake The Twilit Blade all over again. Maybe some day I will, but it definitely isn't today. Feel free to take what I have already made and expand on the concept, just make sure to give me credit where its due. Also, don't just copy the words. That's not cool, and its honestly quite boring to read. Just don't.**

**Anyway, back to the previous question. The thing is, is that I saw a certain character from Naruto, Konan, as one of the best kunoichi that has ever existed in the series. I mean c'mon: using paper as a weapon? That is plain badass. She also gave Obito a run for his money when he came looking for the Rinnegan. If I had to guess, she kept Obito busy for at least 15-20 minutes, especially when you consider that she had a line of detonations going off for 10 minutes. That deserves some recognition, because that's a painfully long battle by shinobi standards.**

**But why Mass Effect? What in the hell inspired me to mix the deadliness of Konan, the Messenger of God, with the living hell of the Reaper War, and the events leading up to it? Well, put simply, I think that Shepard's harem isn't big enough yet...**

**I'm joking of course, Konan is painfully independent and quite frankly she likely wouldn't want to partake in Shepard's long list of one night stands with aliens and humanity's scariest soldiers (Oh, and the yeomen/communication specialist girls that come in bisexual and straight up lesbian. Represent). No, if I had to be fair to myself about the reason, it was that there were 2 distinct dilemma in my head: 1.) Konan didn't deserve to die that way. That was disgusting to me. 2.) Mass Effect 3's ending sucked balls. I know we've been bitching about it for at least a year or two, but it is a constant nagging feeling that can never be washed away. I know it, you know it, that's why were here right now. To try in a vain attempt to make it all better by accepting fanon over canon.**

**Well, so long as we are on the topic of shipping people from other franchises, you're probably thinking "Who's Shepard going to get with?" or "Will Konan have a Love interest?" Let me answer the later first. No, Konan will not have a love interest. If you couldn't guess from the filler episodes with the orphan trio of Amegakure (the commonly accepted name of the team of Konan, Nagato, and Yahiko), Nagato was sorta interested in Konan romantically, but because Yahiko got to her first, and then died as a result of Hanzo... Neither wanted to even think about romance. Pain engulfed their lives at that point, and Nagato wanted to bring peace to the world more so than ever before in his own twisted way. I'd imagine that Konan felt the same way, and in her own way was showing love for Nagato by always being by his side to support him in this endeavor. Does this mean it was actually romantic involvement? No. Neither had the time for it, they had an organization to run. Rowdy Missing-Nin to keep in their place. Besides, it would have been improper of a god to take advantage of his angels wouldn't it?**

**Now to answer the former. I don't quite know yet, whatever tickles my fancy in the moment when decisions need to be made. Maybe he won't even bother, maybe he is going to be a she. Remind me: Why does most of FemShep's romances in ME2 turn to shit by ME3? I don't get it. I mean, if MaleShep decided to, He could easily rekindle his romances with Jack or Tali, with Miranda being the only hesitant one in the case. Liara doesn't count as she is a universal romance option.**

**Oh wait, I'm not supposed to be the one asking the questions. You guys are. Sorry about that.**

**Anyway, some of you (very few actually), are probably going to be wondering how this is going to go down. Who's going where, how is it getting done, or is it all in one universe? I can't answer that here, you need to find out. Sorry, but teasing and torturing you guys is a necessity in this regard. However, don't mistake that as not having an answer yet. I have a plan you know.**

**That said, Welcome to the first chapter. I hope you guys enjoy it, because it would suck something awful if I was writing a fanfiction no one liked.**

* * *

><p><strong>An Unknown Location (Eden Prime)<br>****12:30 p.m Earth Standard  
>January 13th, 2183<br>**

Konan was limping through a forest, bleeding from her right side. Considering the shape and depth of the wound, it was likely that she got hit by a flying kunai... but where it came from, and why she was even here in the first place was beyond her. That meant she was suffering from amnesia, and she knew it. There was no way that it couldn't be. Her overall condition wasn't so great either, as her lip was bleeding as well as several black and bluish bruises across her body and scrapes on her arms and legs, although she didn't have the time to examine the injuries. She just knew they were there from how her body was protesting at the idea of movement. She may not have remembered how she got there, but the evidence suggested she had just been in a fight for her life, and almost lost.

'It doesn't matter right now. I need to get to Amegakure as soon as I can... but in my current condition, I won't make it if I don't find a safe place to rest soon...' she reminded herself. It would be preferable if she found some civilians cottage out here in the middle of nowhere, but from the looks of things... the chances of that were slim to none. She'd probably have to settle for a shady spot underneath the roots of the massive trees if she wanted any hope of getting the wound patched up. Luckily, her paper would allow her to stop the bleeding long enough for her to dress the wound and sew it up. An unpleasant way of doing it, but Jiraya didn't settle for their education being solely based on fighting. Basic first aid was a part of their training to, because being able to fight to save themselves meant nothing if they couldn't patch themselves up after a battle.

Just as she was about to stop to do so, however, she heard the sounds of leaves rustling... and the laughter of children unaware of what was in the woods. Not only that, but it sounded like it was getting closer to her, coming from her left side. She had to stop to make sure she wasn't developing a fever from an infection, and even then she wasn't sure that those were real sounds. For all she knew, she was already neck deep in an infection, and that her enemy was about to finish her off. It certainly wasn't a genjutsu, because she had tried thricefold to dispel the forest and failed each time. If it was a genjutsu, it was a very very good one, because it had encompassed at least 4 out of her 5 senses (there was a faint smell of damp in the air, almost as if the forest had just experienced rain not to long ago). She didn't bother tasting a leaf or something, as that would have been weird. Couple that with the fact that she was a competent sensor type ninja, and she really had no reason to believe that this was indeed a genjutsu. Even Itachi would have had a very difficult time creating a genjutsu this good using tsukuyomi, and that was saying something.

putting such things out of her mind, she turned to the left and walked in the direction of the sounds, albeit cautiously. She didn't know if she was walking into a trap or not, as it wasn't unheard of for ninja to use their own children as bait. Heaven knows Konan used other people's children for the same purposes on missions, although in most cases they were unwitting distractions to her targets.

Sure enough, a small group of 5 kids, probably no older than 7 years old, came into view within moments. They seemed to have been of varying nationalities, because although most of them looked to be from places like the Hidden Leaf or the Hidden Stone Village, there was one kid that looked like she must have been from the Hidden Cloud Village, sharing the same dark skin most of the Kumo-nin had. Her cloak must have been an unusual sight to them, because they immediately spotted her, and the feeling was mutual. It was practically unheard of in the ninja world to see children from so far varied heritages gathered in one place... and not participating in the rivalry of their respective nations.

However, she didn't have the energy to be stunned by this sight, as she had already lost a great deal of blood trying to get to safety. Thankfully, it didn't take long for someone to take notice of her bleeding side.

"Uh, miss? Are you okay?" a red-haired boy asked, to which Konan didn't respond. How could she? She didn't understand a word he said, because he was speaking an entirely different language than she did.

'What did he just say? I couldn't... I couldn't understand any of it.' she observed, deciding to take a crack at communicating herself. Maybe one of the kids in their group would understand what she was going to say? It was worth a shot.

"Do you children live somewhere nearby? Please, I need a place to rest, maybe even get this stab wound looked at." She asked in her native language of Japanese, which earned her alot of confused looks on the faces of the children. Having grown up in an English speaking colony, in a day and age where auto translators where widespread and learning another human language was unnecessary, they didn't have a clue what she could have possibly have said, or even what language she had just spoke in.

Before the red head could speak again, however, Konan collapsed from exhaustion. She had lost alot of blood, and had her good fortune not put her at the edge of the woods, near the trail that lead directly to the Eden Prime Spaceport, she likely would have perished in this strange land. As it was, the kids immediately ran to their school teacher, who was in charge of the fieldtrip to the woods, and told her what they saw.

* * *

><p><strong>Arcturus Station, Themis<br>****Arcturus Stream  
>4:45 P.M Earth Standard<br>January 17th, 2183  
>Approximately 3 days before Shepard's Mission<br>**

"Hm..." Udina grumbled to himself, flipping through the papers for the hundredth time that night. He was currently in a meeting with Admiral Hackett and Captain Anderson to decide who they should select to nominate for Spectre evaluations. There were literally _thousands_ of potential candidates for the Spectres. They were all exceptional soldiers in their own right, and even a significant number of the people listed had received _at least_ an N4 commendation. Throughout the course of the meeting, they had eliminated more than half of the listed names, deciding that they only wanted the best to represent Humanity in the Spectres. That meant that he was currently looking at only those who had received the N7 commendation. Problem was, was that that left at least three dozen people left on the list, and they could all arguably be the best soldiers Humanity had to offer. There could only be one too, and they needed to decide now before something happened to the beacon they unearthed._  
><em>

"What about Shepard?" Udina asked, hoping this endless meeting would finally be over by putting forth his name.

"Commander Elizabeth Shepard, born on the SSV Gibraltar and grew up living on starships with her mother, her father having died during the First Contact War when she was just three years old." Anderson responded, giving them some form of a background on her. To be honest, he was glad that Udina mentioned her, as Shepard was one of the most impressive soldiers he had seen in a long time.

"She was also involved in the events on Akuze... Saw her whole unit get wiped out by Thresher Maws. Somehow, in a manner she has so far declined to mention to therapists and even her superiors, she managed to survive. I don't know what she saw there, or what she had to do to survive, but it clearly wasn't pretty. She has to be suffering some serious emotional trauma." Hackett added.

"Every Soldier has scars, Shepard's a survivor. She knows what its like to be to hell and back, and you know that's something the Spectre's need in agents." Anderson conceded, but nonetheless didn't back down. In his opinion, she was the only person who really could get the job done, and put Humanity one step closer to a seat on the council. Fortunately for him, Hackett was inclined to agree to begin with.

"Is that really someone we want to protect the galaxy captain?" Udina asked in a rather weak challenge. He didn't necessarily believe in Commander Shepard, but what else was new?

"Udina." Anderson began, looking straight into the ambassador's eyes. He wanted to get his message across without any miscommunication, as politicians were infamous for in almost every government. "That is the only kind of person that _can _protect the galaxy. We've all known that since ancient times, just on a much smaller scale than galactic proportions. If you want to try and put a greenhorn straight out of the academy into the Spectres, be my guest. But you better be ready to hear the answer 'no' alot."

There was silence for what seemed to be a very long time, when in reality it was only a minute or two. Finally, Udina sighed in defeat, saying, "Alright Anderson, you win. I'll make the call. Let's hope Shepard is as good as you say she is."

With that, the meeting was adjurned, having over 3 hours clocked into the meeting. To be honest, Udina was glad Shepard was chosen, if only for the reason that he could finally get out of that room that held one of his least favorite people in the whole world. Sure, it meant using some of the 'favors' he had gained over the years getting close to some of the men and women running the Systems Alliance and the Citadel to put Shepard in the spotlight, but any price paid to keep Anderson at a safe distance away from him was money well spent. The trick was to keep him within reach so that when he needed Anderson's resources, he wasn't impossible to reach.

* * *

><p><strong>New Washington Hospital, Eden Prime<br>****8:00 A.M Earth Standard  
><strong>**January 14th, 2183**

"Hello Dr. Grayson, How's our newest patient doing today?" a Dr. Yoshida asked his colleague, referring to Konan. Her somewhat odd apparel had earned the attention of several of the other employees and even patients in the emergency room, and being the doctor that operated on her, he had yet to hear anything about her condition improving. He did manage to get her stable enough to be transferred to a more relaxed section of the hospital, but even so... he was curious.

As one could probably guess from his last name, he was of Japanese decent. As his parents were more traditional than most, he also went through the long and painful process of learning the language of his homeland, as well as English and a handful of other languages. It was something he didn't often mention, the only time being when he applied for the position of emergency surgeon here. He had it drilled into his head that learning a second and even a third language would significantly increase his chances of getting hired, and his parents weren't proven wrong. Even so, with the advent of auto-translators, it was more of a hassle to learn many languages in the civilian sector.

"You might just want to go check yourself. I've heard from people there that they had to chain her to the bed because she tried to make a run for it when she woke up. On the upside, she seems to be recovering quickly." Grayson answered, subtly implying by the tone of his voice that it wasn't necessarily an option for him. He knew a little about Yoshida being multilingual, and he honestly hoped that he could calm her down. Last he saw of the patient, she looked vaguely like a cornered animal, the only difference being that she looked alot more experienced in that department than most.

"Yea, in that case I might. See you on lunch break Brian." He replied to Dr. Grayon, rushing quickly to the room number that he pointed out on the clipboard. If there was something they didn't need, it was a patient who felt like a trapped animal.

* * *

><p><strong>Konan's Hospital Room<strong>

'This room is too white, to sterile... and the worst part of it is, I can't even leave.' Konan fumed silently, laying down in the bed in the pajama-esque clothes she had woken up in. She knew she was in a hospital, but no one could speak her language, and was now detained because she went wandering off into the hallway. It was irritating, especially considering that the only things she wanted were her Akatsuki Cloak and her origami flower back. If not to wear, then to at least have nearby so that she knew they weren't stolen. The flower was replaceable, that much wasn't being questioned. All she needed to do was gather her chakra and form some paper from her surroundings, then fold it into the shape of a flower. The robe, however, wasn't so easily replaced... especially considering she wasn't an amazing seamstress. She could patch up holes, or even tears, but she couldn't make a whole new robe from scratch. Plus, that particular robe had sentimental value, a reminder of when Nagato and Yahiko were still alive.

A few moments later, a doctor in a set of light blue clothing walked in, a warm smile on his face as he checked the clipboard on the desk nearby. Clearly, this man was here to check up on her, and to be honest she was getting used to the idea that no one here would be able to understand her. She didn't like it, but she was getting used to it.

"So, how're you doing today?" he asked in what seemed to be his native language, with Konan only blinking unamused in response as she couldn't understand him. She then said in turn, in her own native language, "Why do I even bother talking to you people? You wouldn't understand what I have to say anyway."

Yoshida blinked a few times, recognizing the language that she just spoke as Japanese. He then smiled again as he responded, surprising her with, "I don't know, maybe because you're hoping someone will?"

"Finally, someone who can actually speak something sensible." she sighed in relief, adding, "Could you please release me from the chains please? Before I have to break them off?"

Yoshida chuckled at the thought, then asked, "Are you going to run off if I do?"

"Not if I get my clothes and flower back I wont"

Yoshida thought about it for a moment, then agreed, "I don't see the harm. You're lucky that your costume had an easy way to get you out of it, otherwise I'd have had to cut you out of it. You do know that the right side is pretty much soaked in blood though right? You did loose quite a bit..."

"I've been through worse doctor, believe me. A little blood on my clothes won't stop me from getting it clean and patched up again."

"If you say so." He stated in surrender, calling someone on a strange, glowing orange device on his arm. She had never seen anything like it, and quite frankly it intrigued her. She had never seen a jutsu like that, if it even was a jutsu. Not only that, but her attention to the device didn't go unnoticed, as Yoshida spotted her staring at it immediately. He could tell from the look in her eyes that she had never seen an omnitool before, which was... well, quite frankly it was weird. Everyone in the galaxy knew what an omnitool was, had seen at least one.

"Your stuff is on its way here." he told Konan, curious about her attention towards his omnitool. Fortunately for him, he didn't need to wait long to get on that subject.

"What kind of jutsu did you just use to talk with the man on the other end of the conversation you just had?" she asked, wondering if it was actually a ninja tool or if it actually was a jutsu like she suspected. The question caught the doctor offguard, as he was not at all expecting the word 'Jutsu,' which meant 'art' to be used in that way.

"Jutsu?" he asked, expressing his confusion, which likewise confused Konan due to his own confusion.

"Is it a ninja tool then?" she then asked, getting even more confused when he just gave her a confused look.

"No, in fact I'm not sure what you mean by that... its just a tool, nothing else. What do you mean by 'Ninja tool'?"

* * *

><p><strong>And thus ends the first chapter. If you've got questions that need answering, don't be afraid to PM me. Seriously, I got nothing better to do most days. That said, I wouldn't expect immediate answers. I do have college to attend to after all, and I'm job hunting to boot.<strong>

**Please leave a review so I know what I am doing right and what I am doing wrong. I figure I haven't been in the actual writing business for a while and I need to learn my place every so often, and its not easy being your own critic. I'll likely miss something someone else will notice long before I do, and by the time I do notice it'll be at least a month or so after I've already written this.**


	2. Konan Gaiden

**I seriously did not expect to gain such a following so quickly, thank you guys so much. I'll definitely do my damnedest to not disappoint. Hell, if you guys got the patience, I'll even try pushing all the way to the end of Mass Effect 3. A very long story, yes, but hell the same can be said for the Naruto Series and the Mass Effect Trilogy. To give those of you who have no clue what I mean an idea, I got about 10 followers on the "first day" alone (I say it like that because technically I posted the chapter at night, so it would make no sense to say that when I posted it was a full day).**

**I'd also like to thank Tormound for her (or his?) excellent arguments explaining just how powerful ninja actually are. Although there are certain points I disagree with, it does give me insight as to how powerful Konan actually is, so I can scale the difficulty accordingly. The way I see it, the only appropriate difficulty setting would have to be Mass Effect's Insanity difficulty, where certain units have _immunities_. Yea, that'll be fun.**

**Also, I'd like you guys to know that I am, in fact, playing through the first game as I write this out (on the difficulty stated no less. Yea, fun). That way, I know what is actually being said and what is actually happening, with, you guessed it, a FemShep named Elizabeth who has a Spacer/Sole Survivor background. Mind you its just a basis for _this __story, _as it would be simply plain ridiculous to allow the story to remain largely unaltered with Konan's presence. I can say no more than that, otherwise I would have to put up a goddamn spoiler alert for this chapter. Because I'll be playing on the hardest difficulty possible, this will definitely take a while. Thankfully, I've played both 2 and 3 on the hardest difficulty possible, so if and when I get to that point, things should move along much more quickly. Does that excuse how long this chapter took to make? Not really, but I'm hoping that you guys like it enough to forgive me.**

**Alright, enough of that. Back to the story.**

* * *

><p><strong>New Washington Hospital, Eden Prime<br>7:30 P.M Earth Standard  
>January 14th, 2183<br>Dr. Yoshida's Office**

Within the messy confines that was Dr. Yoshida's medical office, he had papers strewn about everywhere, with a few touch pads on the desk as well as a extranet terminal that allowed him to write up reports. This seemingly chaotic setup was just how the doctor liked his office, and surprisingly enough he knew where every paper was in that mess, despite some of them being there for perhaps a few months. He would clean up the mess, had he felt motivated to do so... but not only was he not motivated, he was currently writing up a patient report for Konan, as she had said her name was. Simultaneously, he was searching for records on the woman, but so far he had found nothing. 'It would be easier if she had given me her last name, but she just kept her mouth shut when I asked... How am I supposed to figure out what allergies she might have if she doesn't give me any information?' he reminded himself for the third time that night, continuing with his patient report. The report went as such:

**_Patient report: Konan, file 1 _**

_Yesterday evening, Earth Standard time that is, we received a patient at New Washington Hospital, who seemed to be in her mid-thirties and of Japanese ancestry. She had received a nasty looking stab wound to her right side, the cause of which has yet to be revealed to us, just below her ribcage. It was severe enough to warrant emergency medical attention, which included 20ccs of antibiotics, as well as an emergency operation on her liver to prevent a total rupture from the stab wound. Once the operation was completed, we applied the standard application of medigel, and anesthetized her in order for her body to naturally heal itself. She was not expected to wake until at least 12:00 P.M the next Earth day, however she woke up at least six hours before that time, and even attempted to move about unassisted by any staff. The strange part was, was that by all accounts, she seemed to have been walking well enough that assistance would not have been required. Had there not been a staff member that knew some broken Japanese, there might have even been an altercation that would have left several injured.  
><em>

_After questioning the patient for about 10 minutes or so, I have discovered that her name is Konan, a strange name for a woman but nonetheless I remained professional. She claims to be from a place called "Amegakure no Sato" (The Village Hidden by Rain)... I suppose that's an appropriate name, as I received no results when I searched it up on the Extranet, using multiple search engines, human-made and otherwise. Of course, I have yet to mention this to her, as its uncertain how she would respond. It seems to me that she is suffering from a case of amnesia, as she could not explain why she had the stab wound or the scrapes and bruises all over her body. She also has shown curiosity and a complete lack of recognition for omnitools, and other medical equipment besides a scalpel and other basic first aid equipment. I find it hard to believe that it is simply a more advanced case of amnesia, it doesn't account for her clumsiness with the tool. Muscle memory would have assisted in the re-education process, but she hasn't shown any in our first lesson. Also, judging from the answers she's given when I questioned her on human history, it would seem that not only would it be a severe case of amnesia, but it would be so bad as to have implanted new memories in her mind. No head trauma could cause something this thorough, the human mind just isn't built that way. I am, however, in no way an expert on neural sciences, so take my words with a grain of salt._

_I've even tested her knowledge on human history, and this memory "implantation" seems to go even further than I had initially thought, right down to her learning processes. Even moments like World War II were not left unscathed, and she even had been under the impression that, not only did we go through a third world war, but that we were _currently fighting a fourth world war. P_erhaps I'm looking at this wrong, maybe she's simply suffering from a case of dementia. I'll need to keep an eye out for any other symptoms._

-Doctor Yoshida

* * *

><p>When Yoshida finally came back to Konan's room after writing up his report, he walked in on Konan performing some "light" aerobic exercise, which was pushups with only one arm. It sounded like she was in the 200s right now, judging from her low mumbling with each pushup. She was going at a steady pace, one that screamed of military training in the past, as if the fact that she had already done over 200 pushups wasn't enough of a sign (most civvies couldn't or wouldn't do more than 2 dozen in an hour, let alone get into triple digits).<p>

Of course, being the person she was, she didn't make any sort of acknowledgement that Dr. Yoshida had returned, but he knew she was fully well aware that he was in the room. She just seemed to carry herself in that way, not showing any signs that she was paying attention, but was in fact taking in every single detail there was and putting it through calculations... for what purpose, however, had yet to be determined. However, it seemed fairly obvious that she had some military training, even if her behavior was a little off from that. She didn't exude the authority that soldiers did, but she certainly was intimidating for someone so beautiful. Not that it mattered to Yoshida, he was less concerned for her beauty and more concerned about her healing wound.

"Isn't this a bit much for only a day into recovery?" He asked politely, knowing she wouldn't stop that easily. That wasn't the point though, as he wanted to know how exactly she was healing that fast, and he had a hunch that she knew the secrets of her own accelerated healing.

"Maybe. I'm not sure how you treated my wound, but it seems like its already healed up." she affirmed with a neutral tone, having had checked her side before deciding to go about this warm up exercise. She had decided that she was going to wake up her muscles before trying anything strenuous, or testing her chakra control. By now, she had already figured out that she was no longer anywhere near the ninja nations, and that judging from the total lack of chakra in the people she had encountered so far... there were only a few explanations. Either A.) she was in a land where the Sage of Six Paths and the 10 Tails _didn't_ have some sort of influence (which is highly unlikely, as there was a man right in front of her that could speak her language)... or B.) She had somehow managed to escape into another reality all together. If it was option b, then she could only think of a few ways (READ: people) that could have caused this... but for now she wasn't going to worry about it. Afterall, there was always the chance that she could re-enter her own reality only moments after exiting, which meant little time would have been lost away from Nagato and Yahiko's grave.

"You know, it just doesn't seem natural to me that you're up and at it so quickly after nearly dying out there. Just seems too convenient." He probed, hoping to get her to share whatever she knew. Although she was a ninja, and deception was something they were good at, Konan had already grown tired of this word game, and it hardly even started.

"You want to know the secrets of how I recovered so quickly, correct?" She stated bluntly, not even waiting for Yoshida to respond as she got up from her sit ups so as to have a proper conversation. Kami knew it was going to be a long one. "To be frank, I am just as surprised as you are that I'm on my feet so soon. Normally, I would need to be resting for at least a whole three days for a wound that serious, so long as I got it sewed up quickly enough. If i didn't, I could kiss a full week goodbye, praying to Kami that I didn't get an infection along the way."

"That still doesn't answer how you've generated new cells so quickly." Yoshida observed, to which Konan waved off with, "I took some time to observe you and your staff members here at the clinic, whenever you were watching over me. From my understanding, you people seem to have an astounding lack of chakra, which would be lethal were I come from."

"Chakra?" he scoffed, waving her words by. "Really now, how can the teachings of some old yoga instructor really be the source of your healing powers?"

"Would you like me to prove it? Because it would be as easy as breathing for me to show you just how much chakra can actually do." she countered curtly, a fiery look in her eyes at his words. She clearly wasn't amused, but she was more than willing to prove its existence.

Deciding that it wasn't a good idea to rile up a patient, he raised his arms in defeat and said, "Look, I didn't mean to offend you. I just mean that you shouldn't put your faith into something that doesn't have concrete evidence-"

"Do you want me to prove it or not?" she repeated, irritated at what she considered to be the man's spinelessness. She was also not very surprised that he simply sighed in defeat, then nodded in confirmation. That was all she needed, and within moments she turned herself into about a hundred thousand or so sheets of paper, quickly folding them into origami butterflies which proceeded to fly past the doctor, and right out the window. His shocked expression was absolutely priceless, and it took everything she had not to burst into laughter. Not that anyone could tell, she probably had one of the best poker faces in existence.

Of course, Doctor Yoshida was having a hard time believing what he had just seen. His patient quite literally turned herself into paper, and then flew right past him to the window. How could one explain that? Even biotics couldn't pull something like that off... that meant that, what she had said was likely true, and that she wasn't delusional. But what could that mean? Was she a mutation of a normal human being? Or was something else entirely involved in this? Whatever it was, it was highly unlikely he would ever find out, as his only chance had literally flown out the window. 'Guess that's what I get for being a skeptic.'

* * *

><p><strong>Arcturus Station<br>****Arcturus Stream  
>1:05 p.m<br>January 18th, 2183  
>Approximately 2 days before Shepard's Mission<strong>

Commander Elizabeth Shepard, an N7, had just gotten out of her lunch break and was headed down to one of the stations many training facilities. Of course, training wasn't one of the things on the very top of her priority list, as she would rather be chatting away with the likes of Kaidan Alenko or even the greenhorn Corporal Richard Jenkins. She didn't have that luxury though, as they were no where to be seen, and there were rumors circulating around the station that people were being hand-picked by the admiralty for a spot on the newest cruiser: the SSV Normandy. Normally, she wouldn't be nearly as excited about such a thing as she was now, but this ship was supposed to be one of the first of its kind: a stealth frigate. Information she was only privileged to know this soon due to her status as an N7. Of course, getting in a training session this late didn't mean much of anything for improving her chances if she had to prove herself, but she was at least going to give it her best shot. She wasn't a slouch, afterall, otherwise she would only have gotten an N5 commodation at best.

However, just as she was about to, a message on her omnitool lit her arm up in an orange glow, immediately opening up and reading, "Commander Elizabeth Shepard, please report to docking station 13-A ASAP. Bring your Alliance issued armor and weapons."

And thus, Commander Shepard's 3 year long mission began...

* * *

><p><strong>Alright, so that was the chapter. In response to the guest who suggested that the Skyllian Blitz should be Shepard's military history as opposed to Akuze, I'd like you to know that I actually considered having Konan being <em>present<em> during the Blitz, backing up Shepard right off the bat. I decided against it because that would have been too much information for Konan at once in this strange world. Think of it as an immediate culture shock, weapons that don't require much physical effort to use to kill an opponent are not just in existence, but are plentiful, AND she wouldn't understand a word Shepard was saying. As for why Shepard isn't a Spacer/War Hero anyway, well double paragon attributes is very overdone, and Akuze just gives an event that Konan could relate to (although losing one's entire squad to monsters doesn't seem like it could compare to losing one's lover because she got kidnapped, but its a start). Being a hero isn't something that Konan is used to, and I highly doubt she could relate to a War Hero Shepard. Then again, I might be wrong about that, afterall I am not Kishimoto.**

**Anyway, this chapter probably doesn't have the substance it should have. That's because I've been running myself ragged this past week, trying to get things done for university. I just didn't have the time to really think about this chapter, but things should be running smoother next chapter. Hopefully things will start to get interesting for you people... hint hint. **

**Please submit a review, and if you like the story then follow it. If you think its total garbage, don't hesitate to tell me what I am doing wrong, but please have a good argument to support what you say. I'll see you in the next chapter!**


	3. Blindsided by Geth

**Alright, so you guys have pretty much proven that you want to actually read this, and that this story is actually interesting. I say that because I've yet to hear a complaint about how I am doing this, subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) suggestions yes, but no real complaints. For this reason, I thank you guys for your patience.**

**I had several more reviews than I did on the first chapter last chapter, which is quite promising.**

**For example, The Fallen Flames asked how Konan would understand the languages of other races. I had answered him/her by saying that "It would be a mixture of learning the languages herself, and limited reliance on auto-translators. I can't see Konan wanting to be dependent on the technology though, so she is probably going to try to work very hard on learning other languages." I did forget one thing though: that other races are working to understand the languages of humans as well. I don't want to forget that such a thing is a two-way street, and that there are probably already masters of the human language amongst the Asari, Turians, and Salarians, as well as the more minor races. Particularly the Volus, as they need to make as much money as possible, and knowing your clients native tongue is a good way to do it.**

**I did get a review on the matter of my plans to exclude Konan from having a romance, and I think its about time I ****_really_**** explain why I don't feel that is a good idea. Thing is, is that there are ****_alot _****of fanfiction writers that have this notion that the main character needs to fall in love. It tends to be quite prevalent in crossovers as well. I don't agree with these people, I don't agree at all. In this case, I am following the model set by one of my favorite fanfiction writers, Smartgrid, in his fanfiction: ****The Fighting Spirit**** (a fanfiction where Jorge-052 from Halo: Reach crosses over into the Mass Effect Universe), in which it is completely unnecessary for the subject character to fall in love. And even if they did, they would probably pass it off as confused loyalty and comradere. However, the emotion won't be ****_completely_**** left out... but you'll need to read on to see what I mean.**

**I made you people wait long enough, Let's give you guys what you actually wanted.**

* * *

><p><strong>Utopia System, Eden Prime Relay<br>Normandy  
>3:30 P.M Earth Standard Time<br>****January 20th, 2183**

Shepard could hardly believe it. No more than 2 days ago, she was told that she had been selected for service onboard the Normandy, the first ever stealth frigate in the history of the galaxy. Being a woman who was very accustomed to keeping her emotions in check, she didn't show her excitement... but the right people would be able to tell right away that she was. If they called her out on it though, they would have been in for a world of hurt.

This, of course, was something that Kaidan caught onto right away, which served him well when they both learned that they would be serving together onboard the starship. They hadn't known each other long, but Kaidan was a sharp man. He easily caught onto the redhead's slightly volatile yet sarcastic personality, which is a survival trait when you consider just how _deadly_ Shepard can be.

Of course, this was "Just a shakedown run" according to the brass that briefed her on what her mission would be, but she knew better. Eden Prime was one of their best defended colonies, and no matter how advanced the ship was... You don't send one of the best Demolisher-class engineers in the Alliance unless the mission is important. And then there was Nihlus, the Turian Spectre that she practically ran over at every turn of the ship. Spectre's didn't just "tag along" on shakedown runs, that's sheer insanity. There was something up, something the Council wanted. If it was just the Council keeping an eye on their investment, they would have sent someone far less important on Nihlus.

'For that matter, why is that Turian just about everywhere I look? I mean, I know I'm good looking but damn... That's downright creepy.' she wondered, silently chuckling at her own joke. She had a good opinion about her looks, sure, but she wasn't stuck up about it either.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Joker checking off systems that were online and green, saying something about drift being under 1500 k. And speak of the devil...

"1500 is good. Your captain will be pleased." The Turian, who had apparently been _right behind her, _stated simply. He then proceeded to walk away, much to Shepard's relief, when Joker quipped once Nihlus was out of earshot, "I hate that guy."

"He gave you a compliment... So, you hate him?" Alenko asked from the council next to him. Apparently, he had been checking the systems reports alongside Joker, and he was also evidently qualified to know what those reports actually meant.

"You remember to zip up your jumpsuit this morning? That's good, I just got us halfway across the galaxy and hit a target the size of a pinhead, so that's incredible!.. Besides, I don't trust Spectres. To much black ink for the work they do. Call me paranoid." he replied with oozing sarcasm, albeit being very serious about not trusting spectres. A paranoia that was, in Shepard's mind, well warranted.

"The Council has a right to send anyone they want to keep an eye on their investment Joker, if they want to waste the money by sending one of their top agents, then fine by me."

"Alright ladies, shouldn't you be more focused on flying this ship as opposed to gossiping on what the 'cool kids' did last Saturday?" Shepard joked, somehow managing to get the likes of Joker to chuckle at that. Funny, considering that he didn't typically like being made fun of.

"Right, sorry about that Commander." Kaidan apologized with a smirk, knowing full well that Shepard was actually in a pretty good mood. That was something he didn't want to mess with, what with Shepard having survived the horrors of Akuze. No one knew how she did it, and honestly, no one wanted to. At least, no one smart.

"Joker! Status Report!" an all to familiar voice sounded over the comm.

"We're 15 minutes out Captain, nothing else to report... Better brace yourself sir, Nihlus is headed your way." Joker 'warned' his commanding officer, only to hear the voice of the man he honestly didn't want to hear.

"Duly noted Mr. Moreau." The Turian said over the comm, causing the pilot to shake his head and mutter something along the lines of, "too late, damn."

"Tell Shepard to meet us in the Comm room. And find a comm bouy while you're at it, I want mission reports ready to be sent the moment we leave Eden Prime."

"Aye." Joker replied in mock defeat, looking over at the commander with a look that said, "Well... You know what you gotta do."

"Ever hear of the phrase, 'Subtle like a nuke' Joker?"

"Oh ha ha, very funny. Now just go do what you were told before I break my arm on you."

"Wouldn't that be fun. Next you'll want to get to know me better." She joked, not at all letting him get the last joke because competition was just how she rolled. It was all fun and games though, she had met Joker once while she was at military school on Elysium. Back then, he was one of the least happy-looking kids she had ever known, one of the frailest, and overall was just not popular. Of course, she didn't see much of him, as he was training to be a pilot, and she was doing her training for being a combat engineer and medic. Clearly, they both got up to high places in life, a fact that didn't escape Jeff. Looking back on it, she actually kinda wished that she actually got to know Joker then... then again, he had made that next to impossible, but what could you do?

Walking past Pressly, who was chatting with Adams down in Engineering, and briefly calming down an over-excited Jenkins who was chattering away with Chakwas about Spectres and the mission they were on, she finally walked into the comm room, to find that her "stalker" was the only one in the room. A fact she didn't even pretend not to notice. Nor did he.

"Commander Shepard. I was hoping you'd get here first. It will give us a chance to talk." he stated with an unsurprising lack of emotion. Having nothing else to say, she decided to bite.

"What about?" She asked, a slight idea of how this conversation was about to go down. She had met a few Turians in her life, and the few she met where pretty much by-the-book kind of guys.

"I'm interested in this world we're going to - Eden Prime. I've heard it's quite beautiful."

"Looking for a vacation home? I don't think they import any Dextro-amino based food." she quipped, surprising the Turian with her witty comment. He wasn't used to anyone but Joker pulling a joke without so much as a warning, especially when in such a serious environment, and he had yet to get used to Joker... if he was going to at all. "Sorry, not funny I know. I wouldn't know honestly, I've never been to Eden Prime."

"But you've at least heard of it." Nihlus guessed, "Eden Prime is a bit of a symbol to your people, isn't it? Your proof to us that you can not only establish colonies, but also protect them... But how safe is it really Shepard?"

"Something I should know Spectre?" She asked a little forcefully, getting tired of this word game.

"Your people are still newcomers Shepard. The Galaxy can be a very dangerous place... Is the Alliance truly ready for this? Are they ready to be a bigger part?"

Just before Shepard could actually retort, Anderson walked in, forcing the red head to keep her mouth shut.

"I think its about time we tell the commander what's really going on." he stated simply, not even bothering to say hi or anything.

"Let me guess: This is more than some simple shakedown run." Shepard answered before the Turian could even speak up, a small bit of childish retaliation against the Spectre for forcing her to play that word game of his.

"Correct." Nihlus affirmed simply, not bothering to even care about the fact that she cut him off. She wasn't selected for candidacy for the Spectres because she was polite, but because she had the talent to be one.

"We're Making a covert pick-up on Eden Prime. That's why we needed the stealth systems operational." Anderson explained.

"What's the package Cap?"

"Recently, A research team on the surface unearthed some kind of beacon during excavation. It was Prothean."

"What are the details?"

"This is big Shepard. The last time we found Prothean tech, it jumped our technology forward by 200 years. However, Eden Prime just lacks the proper facilities to study the artifact, so we're taking it somewhere else for proper study."

"Obviously, this goes beyond mere human interests, Commander. This discovery could affect every species in Council space." Nihlus added, watching the commander very carefully to see her reaction.

"Well then, glad you're aboard Nihlus. We could use the extra help, and who knows you might even be here to see if someone is Spectre material." she stated with a hint of sarcasm, not really believing that he even cared about making anyone a Spectre right now.

"Oh the irony in that statement..." Nihlus chuckled, surprising the commander in turn.

"You're kidding."

"I don't joke, Commander. Not with something so important."

"There's something else Shepard, other than being made a candidate for the Spectres." Anderson interrupted, catching her attention again.

"I'm listening."

"We've gotten a tipoff that we've come across something else... something that might change the way we understand the laws of our universe... and beyond." he added cryptically, letting her stand confused for a moment before explaining further, "According to our intel, there's a woman planetside who's quite possibly from a whole different universe. We need you to secure her as well."

"Captain-"

"Now isn't the time for jokes, Commander." He cut her off, pointing behind her towards the holograms, which instantly played a video from the dossier folder that was added as proof of the claims the spook was making. In it, a blue haired woman stood, who wore a black cloak with red clouds sewn on in an irregular pattern and what seemed to be a white rose in her hair and a single piercing in her lower lip, and almost unnaturally yellow irides. in a few moments, Shepard watched in shock as this woman disappeared into a flurry of paper, and what topped that madness of was that the paper started to fly around in an almost intelligent manner. It seemed crazy, it just had to be some cinema magic on the recorders part.

"How could that even be possible?" She asked in bewilderment, having never seen anything like it before. "Captain, that can't possibly be real. Someone has got to be making a movie for some old and forgotten TV show from 100 years ago."

"I want to believe that too Shepard, really. But Intel has been running it through every last test they can to see if they can find any form of editing. So far, they've found nothing."

Shepard wanted to argue, she really did. She wanted to come up with some form of explanation for something like that to happen, but biotics didn't cut it. She did her research into the abilities granted by that force, and none of them came close to that level of micro control. It just didn't make sense.

After an awkward moment of silence, Anderson finally decided to get things moving again, "Finding this woman is a secondary objective Commander. The Beacon is top priority."

_"Captain! We have a problem!"_

* * *

><p><strong>Eden Prime, Utopia System<br>New Washington Hospital  
>3:03 p.m Earth Standard Time<br>January 20th, 2183**

The Cafeteria. A place that, quite honestly, Konan had never been in before a few days ago. Amegakure only had a barracks, and an occasional restaurant that served its only patrons: the locals. She was there because she had decided upon having a treat for all her hard work: a hearty bowl of Ramen noodles, as well as a side of rice balls, made in the style of her homeland. Well... almost. It was quite different from how she remembered, to be honest, having all sorts of added ingredients. Some of which she wasn't even familiar with, which Dr. Yoshida had to explain that the new plants were part of the original ecosystem of Eden Prime, which is where they were apparently. Supposedly they were supposed to be healthy, and beneficial to a recovering patient, but she didn't give a damn. It was Ramen, and good Ramen at that, and the Rice Balls complemented the Ramen well.

The reason why she came back to this accursed hospital was a rather simple reason really. She didn't know of anyone else who knew how to speak Japanese, and although they could understand her (due to their auto-translators), she couldn't understand them because she didn't have a device that linked her in to the translation software, and didn't know enough to make out what they were saying anyway. She knew this even before "running away" the first time, and the only reason why she did was because she wanted to give the doctor who was apparently in charge of her well being a hard time. He needed it anyway, he was clearly getting over-confident.

But that's not where her troubles ended either. She knew she was way out of her league with all this fancy technology that barely needed a prompt to activate and turn off, the omnitool being the worst offender in that regard. She needed to know how to _function_ in this new world, and trial and error just would not cut it. Not unless she wanted to be a prostitute, and that was a very disgusting thought to her.

And then, everything went to hell. A group of, some kind of metallic creatures just bursted in, raising what looked like, to her, were crossbows without strings to pull the bolt back, and fired so rapidly at the crowd that it was almost impossible for her to process. Thankfully, she was able to get behind cover fast enough where she was safe... but the same couldn't be said for the majority of the staff and patients there. Hell, she watched Yoshida bleed out in relatively little time right next to her, having not had the same speedy reflexes she had. "Shit..." she cursed under her breath, peeking up to watch as the monsters just executed the survivors one by one. Obviously, this was unacceptable to her. Slaughter may have been a part of being a ninja, but if she could do something about it, she was going to take the risk.

First thing was first though, she took the necklace the good doctor wore around his neck, as he had pointed it out when she had asked whether or not he used translators himself when outside of Alliance space, whatever that meant. Of course, she didn't understand what these monsters were saying when they made the strange, static-like noises (author's note: I couldn't think of anything better okay!), but that was to be expected. None of the survivors understood what they were saying, and the monsters looked like they knew that already, and just simply didn't care.

Finally, when she had had about enough of the waiting, she struck. It wasn't immediate, or dramatic, because the first move she made was to transform herself into paper airplanes, flying into position with the monsters looking at her in an almost curious manner. If they only knew the danger they were in...

It took only a few seconds to wipe the whole group out, and she accomplished this by showering paper kunai upon them, embedding the razor-sharp sheets deep into their metal chests and limbs. She didn't even bother to look at the surviving humans in the room, as she immediately got to work dissecting the creature that was in the best condition. A very good habit to have, considering the fact that she was a ninja, and ninja always needed to know more about what they were dealing with. The faster they found out, the better, because that helped save lives in the long run. With that in mind, she found out alot about their physiology: they didn't even really have one. They were quite literally a machine, dependent only on an unknown energy source (to her at least). That said, she did figure out that, if she severed the wires leading to the "head," she would achieve a much faster kill.

With that out of the way, she decided that it was a good idea to convert the machines into paper for her own use, as they no longer had any use for the bodies. It would consume a small, but noticeable portion of her chakra, so she would need to use that ability sparingly.

"W-what were those things?" a woman stuttered behind her, probably a nurse judging from what she was wearing. Konan simply shrugged in answer, deciding to leave the hospital to confront the monsters. Just as well, it was clear to her that the nurse was terrified of her as well as the machines. Before leaving though, she looked back at the survivors and said, "It would probably be smart to hide. The enemy may not know you're here."

Today was not a good day after leaving the cafeteria, as the hospital was literally _swarmed_ with these things, which had somehow figured out how their friends died... Which was really weird to Konan, and it nearly costed her life when she tried the same method. That's when she realized that these things might all be controlled by the same being, and would get smarter from each of their friends "deaths". That meant she not only needed to be creative when killing her targets, but also not let them catch onto the fact that paper was a trigger for their demises. That meant she couldn't use it exclusively as a killing implement, and that she would need to be more creative in killing her opposition.

* * *

><p><strong>Shepard's POV<br>3:45 p.m Earth Standard Time**

It was official. Today, was a very bad day. Sure, having one of Earth's most prosperous colonies get sacked like this was high on the list of day ruiners, but that was far less personal to Shepard. No, what really topped it all off was that Jenkins was now lying dead, holes all over his chest and making him look like Swiss Cheese. What made that even worse, is that she _knew_ something didn't seem right, and she pretty much just sent Jenkins walking into his death. They should have had weapons ready the whole time, if they did then they wouldn't have been caught off guard like that.

Kaidan was taking it pretty hard to, you could see it in how he carried himself right now. He took the time to close Jenkins eyes for him, an ancient practice to make it seem like the dead were just sleeping. He stood up, and then stated the obvious to Shepard, "Ripped right through his shields... He didn't stand a chance."

Shepard, however, was not in the mood for being sarcastic. Jenkins was a friend to the both of them, and Shepard was his commanding officer. "We'll make sure he gets a proper burial once the missions over, but we need to stay focused."

"Aye."

With that out of the way, they both pulled out their weapons, both of whom were using pistols due to their training as an engineer and a sentinel respectively, itching to get some serious payback at whoever caused this tragedy. It didn't take long, as a brief walk through some trees brought about even more of those stupid, flying turrets. Well, maybe not so stupid, because once they got into cover, the scouts made sure they stayed there, maintaining suppressing fire. At that rate, someone was going to end up just like Jenkins, something she was not willing to repeat. So, she decided that a quick toss of a frisbee-like grenade was in order, placing it just behind the unsuspecting scouts, and in moments she detonated them, sending pieces of red hot scrap flying everywhere. It was only once they were clear that she noticed that her arm was bleeding, and had to use a modest amount of medigel to seal the wound. Thankfully, it was just a bullet wound, and that the round went right through, otherwise she would have had to dig the damn thing out, which was never a very pleasant experience out on the field. Adrenaline and meds kicking in, she moved on with what remained of her squad only to find a soldier running for her life, shooting just as much as she ran. She was a pretty good shot too, taking out two annoying drones with only three shots in total.

But, it was then that it became clear just what the hell they were fighting. They were fighting Geth, and the Geth weren't stopping at killing people with a bullet in the head. For whatever reason it was, they were impaling people on spikes, and that instantly reminded her of the story of Vlad the Impaler and The Forest of Death. Was it pleasant to look at? Of course not, some of the spikes had entrails dropping down the spike. It probably smelt horrible to, and she was not keen on finding out if that was right. But that wasn't something she needed to worry about right now, because the Geth _were shooting her way_. Today was going to be filled with no breaks whatsoever, that much was for sure. Today was going to be a very long and bad day, and this was just the Normandy's first mission. Something told her that missions like this were going to be common, and that she was going to need everything she had just to stay alive. It was just a guess.

* * *

><p><strong>And Cut! Well guys, I've got a few things I want to say before I finally close this chapter:<strong>

**Would you guys actually want to hear about how much of an ass I made myself to look like while playing the Hardcore (apparently insanity isn't a difficulty on my game) difficulty? It'll probably cover it's own chapter, probably added to an FAQ chapter, and obviously it won't be part of the story's fanon. I think it would be rather funny to know what it is I do when I play video games, but then again you guys might not even care. Tell me in the reviews section, or PM me if you prefer, and don't forget to follow the story if you're new and actually like the crap I'm writing.**

**Also, yes I just gave Shepard a small history connection to one of the crew members, and made her fairly different from Paragon/Renegade/Neutral Shepards. Sue me. Actually, don't do that, I don't have the money to fight back. And yes, I did skip a significant number of the details about the moments before the immediate mission and whatnot, but when you've played that first mission as much as I have... It gets old really fast. If you really want it so badly, I'll add it, but otherwise I'd much rather not add it. You've probably read enough Mass Effect fanfictions to know how the first mission goes down, but then again we all know what assumptions do...**

**As for her somewhat snarky comments, I took a page from Dragon Age II's personality builds, which was coincidentally made by Bioware as well, using the same wheel conversation system. who would have thought right? I figured that Shepard was always too serious, and it was very frustrating to me that I wasn't able to change that, but I was able to change how others saw her. In terms of personality, Paragon and Renegade Shepard are pretty similar, but with very notable exceptions. **


	4. The Beacon (Part 1)

**Excuse my lateness, I simply had a very busy couple weeks, what with this being midterms and I having to scramble around to get everything I could get done done as soon as I possibly could. I'm just one guy, and I need to be able to feed myself in the future. So college took priority.**

** Anyway, to the guest who goes by the pen name of Cat: I highly recommend that you make a profile on this website, because it's awfully awkward to reply to each and every one of your reviews through Author's notes. I'm pretty sure the rest of your fellow readers have pretty much figured it out that I've been responding to your questions if they've been reading the reviews and the Author's Notes at the same time.**

* * *

><p><strong>Shepard's POV<br>4:15 Earth Standard time**

Hell on Earth. That was how Shepard would describe what the past half hour was to her and her squad, consisting of her, Kaidan Alenko, and their newest addition Ashley Williams. It may not have been as bad as Akuze, but this was a good second place runner up. It wasn't Jenkins death, or the sheer numbers of Geth they were facing. Oh no, it wasn't that at all. It was that, she couldn't take more than two steps from the rock she was taking cover behind without being pelted by a hail of grain-sized bullets. That was the theme of today's mission, for the most part: one step forward, two steps back and a good 15 minutes of shooting flashlight heads until there was nothing left to shoot at. Granted, she figured out that you could just aim at the neck of any particular Geth, and you'd kill it with one shot. Problem was, was that they had figured out that they knew now too, and they didn't give them much chance to pull that off. Which also meant she couldn't use her overload on them. Or Sabotage. Yea, today was just the _best_.

Not only that, but when they finally caught a break, they got another nasty little surprise. Turns out, that the people who were impaled on the spikes, the ones that Kaidan had theorized were being used for psychological warfare (in all honesty, that was probably part of it), were still very much alive. And none to pleased either. Something must have happened to have sapped out all of their humanity, because they were pretty much feral beasts that could use electrical pulses to overload shields... and once that was accomplished, they'd start bashing their newly-metallic arms against a persons body until they were dead. Something Ashley nearly learned the hard way, had Kaidan not used his omni-blade to impale the creature and therefore kill it.

"Thanks Lieutenant... Thought I was a goner there for sure..." she panted from the adrenal surge, trying to get over the fact that she was just in a struggle for her life. the shockwave apparently had a nasty habit of inducing limited paralysis, making it harder to fight back against them.

"There's practically nothing left of them... Almost like they are husks of their former selves." Shepard observed, knowingly stating the obvious. In a very subtle way, she was naming the creatures "Husks" due to what little remained of them when they were let loose on people. Something that wasn't lost on the Gunnery Chief or the Staff Lieutenant.

"We're calling them 'Husks' now huh?" Alenko replied, calling her out on that point. Shepard just simply nodded and said, "Unless you got a better idea."

He didn't, and he wasn't going to pretend like he did either. He just wanted to move on away from this place, head towards the spaceport and meet up with Nihlus like they were supposed to. It didn't look like there were any hostiles around anyway, and no survivors. If there were survivors, then they were hidden away... which was a good thing. They needed to stay that way too, just in case there were hostiles watching what their squad was doing, and found any survivors that their team encountered.

And they did move on, and when they got to the top of the hill they were climbing, two things happened. First thing that happened, was that they heard a single shot out in the distance, coming in from the direction of the spaceport they were headed to. It sounded low caliber, like that of a pistol, and probably wasn't anything to worry about from where they were. The second thing they saw... was a giant crustacean-like ship, probably dreadnought class by design, take off from the surface. How something like that was able to survive re-entry, land on the surface of a planet, and take off again was anyone's guess, but its takeoff was loud enough to make it hard to think, much less hear the gunshots coming from the direction of the spaceport. 'Oh shit, more Geth.' Shepard thought as she pushed Kaidan and Ashley into cover, 'And Husks. Great, another party to crash.'

* * *

><p><strong>Konan's Pov<br>4:10 P.m Earth Standard time**

Konan's day was not going so well either. For the past hour, she had been running into those machines from before just about everywhere she went. They were literally swarming the streets and fields, shooting anything that so much as moved. From what she was seeing, they had to have been sharing one mind, because they were all shooting at moving paper with a special passion. They were paranoid, and they made no illusion to the contrary. Which was also exploitable.

So, deciding to use her Paper Clone Jutsu to create a distraction, she sent the clone running to the right, allowing her to slip past while they shot the paper decoy to pieces, destroying it. Killing them after they shot the clone down would have clued them in that she could use decoys, and that wasn't something she wanted. She wanted them to be under the assumption that the paper itself was what was causing the problems, not that there was someone in control of it. Even if they did come to that conclusion, she wanted them to think that they finally ended the problem, and finally let their guard down, making it easier for her to slip past the machines undetected. They would never suspect the now inert paper to start causing problems in such a situation afterall, right?

Turns out she was half-right. Although they didn't stop shooting at random piles of paper, they did wait a few moments each time to look and see if the paper would start moving, and invariably shoot when it did. That meant that she had to be extra careful when the machines came her way, which was not a new experience to her. She had hidden herself away from far more perceptive foes before, but then again these machines were relentless.

As she continued to sneak down what seemed to her to be train tracks, she caught a glimpse of something she had never seen before: two metallic, birdlike creatures conversing with one another. Her translator picked up, "This isn't your mission Saren, what are you doing here?" from the furthest being, clearly having a tone that spoke of the kind of respect a student gives to his mentor. Their body language was strange, however, as was expected of a sentient species she had never encountered before. She couldn't understand the toads when either Jiraya or Naruto summoned them, so she was utterly unsurprised.

"The council thought you could use some help on this one..." this "Saren" said, placing his "hand", if that was what it was, on his apparent comrade's shoulder, walking past him and somewhat out of her line of sight.

"I didn't expect the Geth to be here... The situation is pretty bad."

'So that's what they are called then. I better keep that in mind.' She noted inwardly, pairing the word with the image of the machines she had fought against.

"Don't worry..." Saren assured his comrade in a rather ominous tone, one that sent alarms off in her head. She didn't trust either of the two, but this "Saren" reminded her too much of Tobi, and as it turned out... Tobi was a very manipulative man. "I've got it under control." he finished, shooting his friend in the back of the head with what appeared to be a minaturized version of the stringless crossbow she saw these "Geth" using. The other being never even suspected a thing before his death, and it reminded her so much of times when she went under cover to assassinate people that were detrimental to Amegakure. This, however, was just plain unfair. At least her targets had a chance to fight back once they figured out what she was really there for, the dead creature never even had a chance to connect the dots.

Even so, she couldn't just simply run in with blind rage. If she were to do something about it, she would need to do this tactically, and that meant she needed a clear head. A ninja's strength wasn't pure power in itself, but the knowledge in how to apply that power. She wasn't one to preach about fairness, no ninja was, and in many ways this "Saren's" recent actions reflected the philosophy of the ninja world. In all rights, he had done nothing wrong... except get caught red handed, er, purple handed. Apparently these creatures bled violet, not the traditional red. Wonderful.

Now that she was in a calm state of mind, she pulled out a paper kunai, transforming the very inside of the tool to have an explosive tag, set to detonate after 3 seconds, much like a grenade. If this Saren proved to be more competent than the Geth, then the explosion would be a mere distraction while she proceeded to close the distance using her jutsu, in an attempt to render the projectile weapon useless in a fight. With that, she threw the kunai, making it land mere inches away from Saren's foot, catching his attention immediately. He must have sensed that the unassuming paper projectile posed a much more serious threat than it suggested, and he quickly dived out of the way just in time for it to explode.

'So he's smart. This battle will be alot longer than I dared hope then.' She concluded, darting towards her opponent with incredible speed, smacking the weapon out of the foreign creature's hand, which admittedly felt very metallic. He was clearly surprised at the speed at which the assault came, as it was no more than a few seconds since the kunai detonated that she appeared seemingly out of nowhere, and had the gaul to fight him in hand-to-hand combat.

And then it was her turn to be surprised as she was suddenly sent flying backwards from an unknown source, slamming into the metal-plate wall behind her with a vicious thud. She was seeing stars after that, but she managed to avoid getting hit a second time from that attack. Her opponent was glowing purple, so all she could really assume was that he used an unknown ninjutsu of some sort to cause the attack... but she couldn't detect any chakra inside him either. What was going on here?

Now wasn't the time to worry about something like that though, as she had to stop him from grabbing his weapon again to use it against her, as he had picked it up while she was dazed and was lifting it towards her direction. She didn't know how something like that could cause instantaneous death without leaving much more trace than a hole in the head, but she certainly didn't want to find out. So, with that in mind, she formed paper shuriken in her hands, aiming for the weapon as she threw them, hoping to either sheer right through it, or at least knock it out of her opponents hand again. She achieved the later result, this time throwing it far enough where he couldn't run for it and not expect to receive shuriken in his back as punishment.

At that point, he gave up on the weapon, and instead decided to focus on the chakra-less jutsu that he was using before, sending glowing blue orbs rushing her way, some of which tried to follow her when she dodged. In retribution, she closed the distance and slammed her knee in Saren's gut, hoping to have done some damage to what she hoped to be her opponent's kidney, or his species equivalent to that organ. She didn't, but she didn't need to know that, as she still produced some desirable outcome.

The battle was in her favor until the Geth decided to back Saren up, shooting at her with reckless abandon and forcing her to take cover again behind the crates this time. Saren was clearly getting away, running in the direction she just came from, and there wasn't much she could do about it except worry about surviving. After a while, she stopped feeling the vibrations of the metal projectiles hitting the crates behind her back, and heard an exponential increase in the volume of the sounds that were created from the weapons firing. And then there was that _unearthly __shriek_ that practically stopped her from hearing her own thoughts, it was that loud. It didn't last long though, and she could go back to focusing on the now distracted Geth, who were shooting at people... who were also shooting back, and then shooting at these... Well, blue shuffling corpses.

Killing the machines took priority, she could figure out what it was she saw later. Chances were that someone in that team knew who this Saren was, and what he was doing here. not knowing the potential threat of these new hostiles, she decided to not take the chance on it. Focusing on the seemingly reanimated corpses, she aimed for the head in most cases, embedding a kunai in the skulls of three before the others took out the rest, ripping right through the shields of the Geth in little time. Having nothing better to do, she decided to wait there for the team to come to her, knowing they likely had questions for her. Kami knew she had some for them.

"Impressive work... I can hardly believe you took out those Geth with just throwing knives." the woman in the lead started, complimenting her handiwork before adding, "I'm Commander Elizabeth Shepard, of the SSV Normandy. We've been looking for you... Konan right?"

"How do you know my name?" Konan asked in suspicion, her eyes narrowing to reflect that fact. Understandable, given her current situation with not knowing more than a fraction of the abilities of the technology this reality had.

"The Alliance got a tip-off from a reliable source." She answered simply, having little else to actually say. Information was unusually light on this mission, and she was a complete unknown to them. Shepard only had one small inkling of Konan's true capabilities, and had to tread cautiously. "From what I understand, you're a bit of a special case: No memory of how you got to Eden Prime, but you know how to do something that no normal human can manage."

Konan knew what she meant, indeed she quickly figured out the source of this information... though she doubted that the name would mean anything to the armored woman. "I see. Doctor Yoshida seems to have been too chatty outside of my presence."

"Who's that?" the man of the group asked, a look of genuine curiosity in his eyes. That look was reflected in different ways in the rest of the team, with the other woman giving her a look of suspicion. She couldn't blame her, she was dressed awfully strange in comparison to other civilians. Then again, she didn't consider herself to be a civilian.

"Some man that healed me when I was found wounded here on Eden Prime, as you call this place. No one that you need concern yourself with, afterall he is dead."

"So you killed him?" the other woman asked accusingly, her look of suspicion sharpening.

"No, I simply couldn't save him." Konan answered neutrally, having turned in her direction. "Just like I couldn't save... whatever that is." she added, pointing at the corpse of Nihlus. She didn't actually know that Nihlus was a Turian, nor did she really care. All she knew was that it was already starting to smell.

"That is a Turian... His name was Nihlus." Shepard explained as she knelt down to check Nihlus's corpse, noting the bullet wound in his scaly head.

"Well, if he is a Turian, then I know what his friend was."

"There was another Turian?" the man asked this time, returning his attention to Konan.

"Yes. I think his name was 'Saren'. Deceitful thing, managed to get Nihlus there to lower his guard before shooting him in the back of the head... Clever though." She answered, earning a sour look from the other woman in their group. She didn't care though, she was going to give praise where it was due and nothing else. Besides, she had nothing against the "Turian" personally, so there was no good reason to withhold it. She was just trying to stay alive for now.

"Can you show us which way he went?" Shepard asked, to which Konan pointed to her right.

"He ran off down that way, towards this 'spaceport'... or whatever it was the locals called it." She answered simply, putting her hand down once Shepard had looked.

"I know you're unarmed, but we could use your help Konan." Shepard added, to which Konan replied, "Never assume a Shinobi is unarmed, Commander. It could cost you your life."

"Is that a threat?"

"No, its advice."

"So then... will you help us?" She asked, to which Konan said, "Only for now. I suspect there was a reason why he fled that way, and I intend on learning more."

* * *

><p><strong>I wanted to make this chapter longer, however I made you people wait too long, and I was getting impatient with myself. Guess I'll have to finish up the mission on Eden Prime in the next chapter, won't I? Yea, that's probably what's going to happen. Sorry about that, I swear I don't make cliff-hangers on purpose.<strong>

**EDIT: I have noticed a plot hole. I will get to editing this chapter as soon as I can.  
><strong>

**EDIT 2: I have _finally addressed the plothole. _Sorry it took so long, I had to focus on my studies more than this story, so I put it to the back of my mind until now. When I did have time to write, I managed to be stupid enough to close out the tab I was writing in without saving, so you can imagine the kind of frustration I felt having to redo the edit over and over again. The next update might take a while, considering that I need to get back into the groove of writing in Konan's perspective. **

**I understand there are some concerns that this might turn out to be essentially "Konan Commentary," due to Saren getting away. I mean, c'mon: Konan is, as of right now, the most dangerous sapient living being in the whole galaxy. Shouldn't Saren just have exploded into many microscopic sized bits of turian all over the walls and ceiling? He should have, but I also have to suggest you don't focus on Saren too much. He's not going to be important for very long. **


End file.
